


among wildflowers and moss

by shuuos



Category: Original Work, Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Development, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Ghost Hunting, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Nightmares, Other, Post-Episode: s01e21 Secret of the Sundrop, Slow Burn, THERE'S A LOT OF STUFF FOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS HUH, Trans Female Character, but yeah this is entirely bc i thought it would be a funny story, i dont even rlly know if im gonna go in that direction yet, i'm gonna try and mention it as much as i can bc i can, in general like not only romance, possibly, these tags make the story sound much wilder than it is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-12 01:41:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shuuos/pseuds/shuuos
Summary: Varian bristles at the comment, "Those weren't 'silly', how dare you-"Angelie shushes him with a hand to his mouth. She leans on him, and he can tell she's putting all her strength into it, "Calm down." She leans some more, forcing him down on his side, "Please calm down."-------------------------------------Have you ever looked at Varian and been like "dang i love him but someone PLEASE knock him down a few pegs"? WELL this is the fic for you! No knowledge of the OC universe necessary, because it gets explains throughout the fic! Or your money back!





	among wildflowers and moss

_ but it’s too late, i believe in fate _

_ i’m absolutely smitten and i’ll never  _ let you go

 

Angelie wouldn’t say she  _ hated _ the folk-world. Honestly, it was a  _ gorgeous _ place - like the human realm (if one ignored the kaleidoscopic sky and weird plants), but more in tune with the wilderness. The owners of those nice-looking Instagram accounts would have literally lost their minds if she ever managed to take a picture of it. So no, she wasn’t taking this for granted or anything.

It’s just that… strange things happen there  _ every _ time she comes.

 

. . .

 

It seems the whole population is crowded down at the beach, murmuring and shifting around. Considering how they’d usually be working at this hour (at least, Angelie’s pretty  _ sure _ they do), it’s a rather strange sight. She doesn’t take much time to pore on it, however. Instead, she heads in their direction, squeezing through the strait space in between each person to the front of the crowd.

The air is thick with the smell of sea salt and the presence of the crowd. But it seems to  thin as she takes in the sight in front of her.

There is a boy -  _ a human boy  _ \- lying against the sand, wet from the foamy water lapping at him. By his side is… a raccoon?  _ What? _

 

“3AM!” She turns to face the one addressing her, a river sprite she’d helped a while ago. The sprite heads towards her, staying away from the human boy, “Hey, uh… do you know how it - he got here?”

She answers with her lips slightly twitching upwards, “You folk put entries  _ everywhere _ , someone was bound to wander in.” The only response she gets are bewildered looks, as if they’ve never even considered the possibility of someone getting in on accident. Incredible. That explains  _ so much. _

“R-ight, so. Um. What do we do with him.” The crowd stirs; no one wants to leave him here, but they don’t want to take him into their homes either. Angelie ponders over the options - if she leaves him here, he will be trapped and forced to work, but where exactly would she bring him? There’s no hint of where he might come from, nor does she know the exact entry he used.

Then she thinks about bringing him to her lighthouse. Not  _ permanently _ , of course not, but just so she can figure out how to return him to where he came from. It’s almost laughable; how would Moon react to her bringing home a human boy like a stray puppy?

It’s the best choice she can think of, though, so she strides up to the boy and announces, “Don’t worry about it,  _ I’ll _ take him with me.” Crouching down, she slides her arms underneath him, and lifts him up rather effortlessly. The raccoon approaches her curiously, gaze fixed on the boy. She makes no effort to chase it off.

Angelie takes the moment to survey his appearance. His hair is black and curly, with streaks of teal running through (she writes it off as the influence of the folk-world). His face is splashed with dark little freckles that contrast the white ones on her own cheeks. To be honest, he can  _ almost _ be considered endearing, except his eyebags say that he hasn’t slept for years and his clothes are weird. It makes him look like a train wreck.

That’s fine. She’s a bit of a train wreck, too. The only difference is that she’s better at hiding it.  _ Maybe he’s related to the raccoon, _ Angelie thinks in amusement.

 

The river sprite hovers around her, spouting gratitude and promises of returning the favor. She makes no effort to tell her otherwise. The folk are strong believers in paying their due where they see it necessary.

This one is either eager to pay off her debt or just annoying, because even as she makes her way back to her lighthouse, the sprite follows.

“Hey, 3AM, you need help carrying him? I can help with that!”

“It’s alright.”

“If you say so… do you need any magics? Like, for ghosts or stuff?”

“Not right now.”

“Hm. Hey, you’re transitioning, right? You told me a while back!”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want me to help out?”

“No. But thank you for offering.”

“Well, what if-”

_ “Listen,” _ Angelie turns and tries to sound gentle, but stern, “if I need help with anything at all, you’ll be the first person I go to, alright?” The sprite seems unsatisfied, but nods and heads back to the town, leaving her to retrace her footsteps back to the entrance.

Walking through, it was a lake filled with water that somehow left her dry. But as she returned, it shifted into a tree with a huge tunnel in the middle. Whatever. She chalks it up to weird folk magic.

All of a sudden, she regrets sending the sprite back. She  _ had _ come here with a purpose - and yeah, it was just for bath salts but self-care is  _ important _ \- but she quickly decides to save it for later. Weird human boys who wash up on the beach come first. Even when she would much rather have her bath salts.

The raccoon trails behind her, eyes trained on what she assumes to be its owner. Hopefully Moon won’t mind it. As she walks through the tunnel, she reminds herself to buy them a few cat treats for putting up with her.

 

. . .

 

Holding the boy leaves her soaked, much to Angelie’s annoyance. He’s even more wet now that the tunnel leads her out of the ocean. It makes no sense why the tunnel goes through the ocean, but it’s only a few meters away from her lighthouse, so she doesn’t complain.

It takes a while for her to figure out how to open the door without dropping him, but she manages to unlock it, and makes a beeline for her personal floor.

Moon is resting on her hammock, not looking even a bit fazed as she practically vaults herself into the floor so small it could be considered a room on its own. They don’t even bat an eye at the raccoon, though it watches  _ them _ nervously. There’s a pile of blankets near the TV, and, with no other place to put him, she dumps him there.

“Oh - he needs clothes, huh?” There’s no way  _ she’s _ going to change him. That would be just… weird. So she heads over to her wardrobe and sifts through it for something, eventually deciding on a comfy yellow hoodie. It’s big on  _ her, _ and will undoubtedly be big on the boy, but it’s better than nothing. She tosses it over her shoulder and picks out something for herself - a pink sweater and a pair of red sweatpants.

With her own clothes in her arms, she sets off to the floor underneath her, where the bathroom is. She’s already wet and salty, might as well take a shower.

 

_ Varian _

 

When Varian wakes up, it is soft and warm. The world is blurry at first, but he can make out soft yellow lights and a light brown around him. Then he blinks, and everything comes into focus.

He doesn’t know where he is. It’s not like anything he’s  _ ever _ seen before, with strange paintings and machines strewn alongside blankets and pillows. There’s a staircase on the opposite side of the wall, leading both up and down. Hanging underneath it is a hammock, with what he  _ thinks _ is a cat resting on it. Ruddiger bounces to his side as soon as he sits up, watching the cat nervously.

Someone left a yellow shirt nearby, and he uses the term “shirt” loosely because he’d never seen a shirt with pockets so…  _ strange. _ There’s a large one on the front and what he assumes to be a pouch on the back of the collar. However, his clothes  _ are _ wet and quite cold, frankly, so he changes into the weird shirt without any (external) complaints.

It’s big on him, and so  _ very _ soft. Varian wonders if anyone would mind if he were to “borrow” it for an undefined period of time. It wouldn’t be the worst crime he’s ever committed.

Footsteps echo from somewhere below him, and he freezes.  _ They’regoingtokickyououtnohurtyounodragyoubacktojaildosomethingDOSOMETHING- _

None of that happens. Instead, a  _ girl, _ of all things, pops up from the lower floor.

 

And  _ of course, _ he makes a fool of himself by letting out a loud, high-pitched screech.

**Author's Note:**

> lmao the title sounds all angsty and stuff but it's rlly from a love song aHA  
> anyways unlike amber and buttercups there's not gonna be any set update schedule it just. updates whenever bc this is a ridiculously self-indulgent fic comprised of nonsense and SOMETIMES plot  
> if u wanna talk to me abt any of my stories, my tumblr is @shuuos!


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